The San Diego Padres' ongoing quest for a World Series (or at least a playoff title). "You know that many runners enter a race, but only one of them wins the prize. So run to win! Athletes work hard to win a crown that cannot last, but we do it for a crown that will last forever." 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

Results tagged ‘ FIRST PLACE BABY!! ’

Last year, Jonathan Sanchez threw a no-hitter against us. We faced him again last night, and he was almost as good as that. This time, he threw a one-hitter. And the amazing thing is, we won the game.

Mat Latos started the game for us, and he was incredible. He went seven solid innings, giving up nothing but four hits and one walk. Absolutely amazing. Let me tell you something: if we hadn’t had the stunning pitching performances like we’ve had for the past five days, we would not have won those games. Without good pitching, you don’t win. But thankfully, we’ve had incredible pitching. Wow I love these guys.

In the bottom of the fourth, Chase Headley singled (that’s our one hit). He then stole second, and a batter later, Scotty Hairston hit a sac-fly to get him in.

Chase was an essential part of this game. Hey, he’s been an essential part of this winning streak! Last night he stole three bases, got our only hit, and scored our only run. Amazing.

Most times, a very close game like this one was is a lot more intense than a game where the Padres are winning like 17-2. This was a nail-biting, and we had some seriously close calls.

Mike Adams came in to pitch in the top of the eighth and instantly got himself in trouble by giving up a lead-off triple. Gulp.

He got the next guy to ground out to third. Then he got a pop-up to Adrian. Finally, he struck out the last guy he faced. It was scary, man, but Mike got himself into that situation, and it was up to him to get out of it. It was really, really great that he was able to, but Mike? How ’bout you don’t get yourself into that situation next time in the first place? It would make things a lot easier on all of us. Thank you.

Then my boys weren’t able to get any more runs in the bottom of the eighth, which was very scary. Heath Bell cannot handle one-run leads. It just doesn’t work with him. I would really, really appreciate it if you stopped making him go out there with only one run to work with!! It’s just to hard on my heart.

I don’t understand why on earth Heath has to make things so interesting, but for some reason, he does. He got an out, but then he put the tying run on base with a walk. What on earth?? That’s not very logical. Then he allowed a single!! I was freaking out. Thankfully, the runner stopped at third, but now you’ve got runners on first and third with only ONE out!!!

Oh man it was awful. Heath got the next batter to fly out to right field, and the runner at third stayed put. Then, the last batter was super intense. You could tell that Heath was ready to get that guy because he was sticking with his fastball and going right for the strike zone. It went called strike, swinging strike, foul, foul, and finally, swinging strike. After all those fastballs, Heath went with his curve and got John Bowker to go for it. HUGE sigh of relief here.

As I was sitting there watching the game on Gameday, I didn’t want us to lose it. Not only would it be our fifth win in a row, and we would win the series, but we would win a game with only one hit. I think that’s pretty sweet. I was very, very relieved when Mike and Heath were able to get out of those nightmarish innings. You guys can’t do that to me!!!

All that matters though, is that we won the game. We won a game with only one hit. Of course, that’s a terrible thing, because we really need to have more hits as a team, but the story of this game is the pitching. Sanchez and Latos were incredible. Sanchez struck out ten batters. The bullpens were not perfect, but they were able to keep the other team from scoring. Overall, it was an incredible game.

Another thing I’m super excited about is that we’ve moved into first place with these Giants. YES!!! I love it when my boys are #1. I know we were in first place for a while last season, and it didn’t last very long, but it will be very interesting to see how it goes this season. How cool would it be if we stayed in first place for a very long time? I love these boys!!

The series finale against the Giants is going to be this afternoon down at Petco. It’s not a rubber game, because my boys already won the series!! HAHAHAHAHA!!! I think it would be amazing if we could sweep this series and take sole possesion of the NL West. Sound good? Let’s do it.

Jon Garland’s pitching, so he really needs to get things together. I will not be happy at all if he blows this game for us. GET IT TOGETHER JON STEVEN GARLAND!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, that’s my boys. Top of the NL West. I’m so proud to be a Padres fan right now, and I’m looking forward to some more amazing baseball.

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